Drawer light fixture for those having vision difficulties

ABSTRACT

Our invention has to do with an electrical light fixture for brightening the usually dimmer portion of a drawer storage area. Also, this electrical light fixture is small enough to be attached to an inside surface of a desk. When attached, it is preferably located immediately above the storage area of a desk drawer. This invention does not take away the drawer space available for storage. Also, this electrical light fixture uses battery power for providing automatic lighting turn-on when the drawer is opened and for providing automatic turn-off when the drawer is closed. Alternatively, the automatic turn-off occurs after a pre-determined amount of time. This light fixture is especially convenient for those people who have vision difficulties either because of an illness, a surgical operation or just because of age such as being young children or elderly people.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Our invention has to do with an electrical light fixture for brighteningthe usually dimmer portion of a drawer storage area. Also, thiselectrical light fixture is small enough to be attached to an insidesurface of a desk. More specifically, this invention provides anautomatic ON and OFF features using a photo-conductive sensor.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Drawers come in different sizes. Desk drawers are usually smaller thanthe drawers inside a dresser, kitchen cabinet or a closet. In turn, anylighting fixtures designed for cabinets, dressers and closets aregenerally too bulky for use in the desk drawers. A typical cabinetlighting system in the market today has more than one lamp attached toan inside cabinet wall near a cabinet door. This cabinet lightingfixture also has a transformer and a distribution box. Altogether, thefixture makes it too bulky for use inside a desk drawer. Practicallyspeaking, this lighting fixture can not be easily carried off and beused in another place, and it would be too hard for those who havevision difficulties (e.g., the vision-impaired, young children, and theelderly people) to install and set up.

Although there are light fixtures available in the market today that arespecifically designed for illuminating drawers, there are still manydisadvantages in using those fixtures. Such a light fixture typicallyuses a mechanical switch for power turn-on, and it is fixedly attachedto a drawer, and therefore, making battery changes difficult. Anothersuch light fixture attaches to the inside surface of the drawer frontface, which when the drawer is opened, its emitted lighting often isfound to be unnecessary because of the existing room light. As thedrawer opens, the attached light fixture also moves away from the backand dimmer portion of the drawer whereby making the light fixture lessuseful. Furthermore, this light fixture takes up storage space insidethe drawer and takes away the space available for storage.

Therefore, one advantage of our invention is to provide a light fixturethat does not take away the drawer space available for storage.

Another advantage of the invention is to provide a light fixture whoselighting is directed toward the dimmer portion of the drawer, and insuch a manner, whereby enabling better illumination and easierrecognition of the items stored toward the back of the drawer.

Yet another advantage of the invention is to provide a light fixturethat is easily taken off from the desk for battery changes and that itpowers the light bulb ON automatically when the drawer is opened.Furthermore, it provides an automatic light bulb power OFF when thedrawer is closed. Alternatively, the light is automatically shut-offafter a pre-determined amount of time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to these and other features of our invention, a light fixtureis provided for illuminating a drawer for overcoming the disadvantagesof the known light fixtures. Briefly, our drawer light fixture has ahousing that contains a bulb and battery as its power source. It isremovably attached to the inner surface of the desk face that isimmediately above the drawer. It further has a photo-conductive sensorthat operates as a gating element between the light bulb and thebattery. The sensor serves as an ON/OFF switch and is sensitive to thebackground room light. When triggered by the room light, the sensorwould electronically close the switch and turn the light bulb ON. As thedrawer closes, the lack of room light would cause the sensor to open thecircuit whereby turning the light bulb OFF. Alternatively, a timercircuit electronically coupled to the photo-conductive sensor would turnthe bulb OFF after a pre-determined amount of time.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above advantages of our invention will no doubt become apparent upona reading of the following descriptions and a study of the three figuresof the drawing.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing where a preferred embodiment of ourinvention is placed relative to a drawer;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of another preferred embodiment showing theappearance and features of the present invention; and

FIG. 3 illustrates a general and simple circuit diagram for the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

With today's advances in technology, the battery-powered light fixturedesigns generally do not require the rendering of fully detailedimplementation diagrams. The definition of electronic functionalityallows those skilled in the art to design the desired light fixtureimplementations. Accordingly, functionality will be described in detailwith the accompanying drawings. Those of ordinary skill in the art, oncegiven the following descriptions of the various functions to be carriedout by the present invention will be able to implement the necessarymechanical and electrical arrangements in suitable technologies withoutundue experimentation.

Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a partial view of a desk 10having a tabletop 11 and a drawer 12. The desk 10 has a separation strip15 located immediately above the drawer 12 and below the tabletop 11.FIG. 1 also shows an illuminating light fixture 20 embodying the presentinvention, and it is removably attached to the desk 10. Morespecifically, the light fixture 20 shown in dash illustrates that it isattached to the inner face of the separation strip 15 of the desk 10.Further, the light fixture 20 has a transparent bulb cover 17 throughwhich light is emitted. The bulb cover 17 may be placed in a positionalong the inner surface of the separation strip 15 that is convenientfor item illumination and recognition. A preferred way for suchattachment is through the use of VELCRO 25 or other fastening productsin any similar and commercially available manner. In the case of thelight fixture 20, VELCRO 25 is wrapped around the light fixture 20 in agenerally centrally position. As a result, VELCRO 25 allows the lightfixture 20 to be easily taken off of the desk 10 for battery change oreasily carried off for use in another location.

The light fixture 20 shown in FIG. 1 has an elongated and generallycylindrical housing, however, engineers who work in this field caneasily adapt the shown embodiment with typical engineering efforts intoother form factors and configurations, for example, a generallyrectangular housing. Preferably, the weight of the housing is to be aslight as possible, and the width of the housing is to be as narrow aspossible so that light fixture 20 could be easily attached to the backof the separation strip 15 using VELCRO 25.

FIG. 2 illustrates a perspective view of another preferred embodiment ofthe present invention. Referring now to FIG. 2 in conjunction with FIG.1, the light fixture 25 also includes an elongated, hollow and generallycylindrical housing 30 formed of plastics or similarly light-weightmaterials. The fixture 25 further includes a transparent bulb cover 27,a photo-conductor 31 and two VELCRO pieces 29 (one on the other side ofthe housing 30, and not shown). Although only a portion of thetransparent bulb cover 27 is shown, it is readily understood to thoseskilled in the art that the transparent bulb cover 27 is preferablysemi-cylindrical in configuration which covers a portion of an endsurface and side surface of the cylindrical housing 30.

The appearance of the light fixture 25 is different from that of thelight fixture 20 in that a recess 32 cuts into the generally cylindricalhousing 30 at the end opposite to the end where the bulb cover 27 islocated. The recess 32 may be up to a substantial portion of thatcylindrical end of the housing 30. Also, the VELCRO fabric 29 that ispreferably glued to the housing 30 does not wrap around the housing 30.The two patches of the VELCRO fabric 29 allow the light fixture 25 to beeasily attached to the separation strip 15 in either direction. Clearly,a receiving VELCRO fabric (not shown) needs to be fastened (e.g., glued)to the inner surface of the separation strip 15 for such an attachment.In this manner, the light fixture 25 can be easily taken off for batterychanges or for transport.

The diameter of the cylindrical housing 30 is sufficiently large toallow the housing 30 to receive batteries (not shown), for example, twosize A batteries, but it is also sufficiently narrow so that itsdiameter is shorter than the width of the separation piece 15. Thehousing 30 has two compartments 36,38, which one compartment 38 containsthe batteries and the necessary circuitry including a photo-conductor31, and the other compartment 36 contains a light bulb (not shown). Thephoto-conductor 31 is located on a side-facing surface 33 of the recess32 whereas the photo-conductor of the light fixture 20 although notillustrated in FIG. 1, it is located on the end surface away from view.In FIG. 2, the photo-conductor 31 may also be preferably located on thedownward-facing surface of the recess 32.

The light bulb inside the compartment 36 emits light through thetransparent bulb cover 27. For clarity purposes, the electricalconnections between the bulb, the photo-conductor 31 and the batteriesare not shown in FIG. 2; however, only typical engineering efforts arerequired from the artisans for implementing the electrical connectionsof the present invention. A general and simple circuit diagram for thepresent invention is hereinafter described in FIG. 3.

Again referring to FIG. 2, the two housing compartments 36,38 are joinedtogether in a usual threaded manner as in how two compartments of atypical flash light tube are joined together. The bulb cover 27 ispreferably made of either a transparent, translucent or any materialcapable of providing good lighting effects whereas the remaining portionof the compartment 38 and the housing compartment 36 that contains thebatteries are preferably made of an opaque plastic material of anycolor. An aperture is provided on the side-facing surface 33 of thecompartment 38, and through which the photo-conductor 31 is securelyseated. This photo-conductor 31 in effect acts as an ON/OFF switch tothe light bulb.

On the one hand, as the drawer 12 is opened, it allows room light toreach the photo-conductor 31. Even with just a tiny amount of light, thephoto-conductor 31 drops in resistance to provide an open channel forthe battery power to energize the bulb. The bulb does not need muchpower to brighten the dimmer and backend portion of the drawer 12.However, the resulting lighting does allow those who have visiondifficulties such as young children or the elderly people to betterrecognize the items located toward the backend portion of the drawer 12where the room light is typically not bright enough for thevision-impaired. On the other hand, as the drawer 12 is closed, the lackof room light will cause the photo-conductor 31 to act like an opencircuit and therefore cutting off the battery power supply to the lightbulb.

FIG. 3 is a general and simple circuit diagram describing the presentinvention. This general circuit 45 includes a battery 50, a light bulb55, a transistor 60, a photoconductor 65 and a resistor 70. The bulb 55is preferably of a low wattage matching the batteries. The transistor ispreferably of a low-power FET, for example, the Motorola MTP series FET.The photo-conductor 65 is typically a cadmium sulfide (CdS) photocell.It has a resistance value in the tens of mega-ohms at its high end.However, as the room light reaches the photo-conductor 65, itsresistance drops to several hundred ohms. The resistor 70 is preferablyof low resistance, for example, 3.3K ohms, as compared to the highresistance value of the photo-conductor 65. When the drawer 12 isclosed, very little light falls on the CdS photo-conductor 65.Therefore, its internal resistance is extremely high whereby keeping thetransistor 60 OFF and preventing current to pass through the bulb 55.Optionally, a diode may be added across the transistor 60 to furtherensure that no current passes through the bulb 55 during the highresistance phase of the CdS photo-conductor 65. When the drawer 12 isopened, the room light hits the CdS photo-conductor 65. Its resistancedrops to several hundred ohms whereby turning the transistor 60 ON andallowing the current to pass through the bulb 55.

As a matter of implementation, the components such as the transistor 60and the resistor 70 are preferably be located close to thephoto-conductor 65 inside the housing; however, engineering efforts mayresult in numerous adequate designs without undue experimentation.Furthermore, with the addition of a few more electronic componentsincluding for example, a couple of operational amplifiers and diodes,one can construct a light-controlled one-shot timer circuit found in anytypical electronics text. Briefly, the first operational amplifier isconfigured as a voltage comparator to sense a change in voltage that isapplied across the photo-conductor 65, and the other operationalamplifier is configured to trigger a one-shot timer by the output of thefirst operational amplifier. Operationally speaking, as the room lightfalls on the CdS photo-conductor 65 and causes the voltage that isapplied across the photo-conductor 65 to change. The one-shot timer isthen triggered and whereby allowing the light bulb 55 to be energizedfor a pre-determined amount of time such as 60 seconds before thebattery power is cut off.

While the present invention has been described in terms of a fewpreferred embodiments, it is contemplated that persons reading theforegoing detailed description and studying the drawing will realizevarious alterations and modifications for this invention. It istherefore intended that the following appended claims be interpreted asincluding all such alterations and modifications as fall within the truespirit and scope of the present invention.

We claim:
 1. A drawer light fixture combination wherein a light fixtureilluminates a back portion of a drawer without taking up drawer storagespace, the drawer light fixture combination comprising: a desk having adrawer and the desk further having a separation strip locatedimmediately above the drawer; a first VELCRO fabric fixedly fastened toan inner face of the separation strip; a generally cylindrical housinghaving a second VELCRO fabric fastened thereto for attaching saidhousing to the separation strip by coupling the second Velcro fabricwith the first Velcro fabric, said generally cylindrical housing furtherincluding a first and a second compartments wherein the firstcompartment containing a bulb, a semi-cylindrical bulb cover and whereinthe second compartment containing two batteries, a photo-conductor, aresistor and a transistor; the semi-cylindrical bulb cover forming as apart of the first compartment and further being made for allowing lightfrom the bulb to pass through; and the photo-conductor being located onan end surface of the second compartment of the cylindrical housing, thephoto-conductor being configured for receiving room light and beingfurther configured electronically with the bulb, the batteries, theresistor and the transistor so that the bulb being automaticallyenergized by the batteries as the drawer is opened and that the power tothe bulb being automatically de-energized as the drawer is closed.
 2. Alight fixture for illuminating a back portion of a drawer without takingup drawer storage space, the drawer light fixture comprising: a housingincluding a first and a second compartments wherein the firstcompartment containing a bulb and a bulb cover and wherein the secondcompartment containing at least one battery, a photo-conductor and atransistor; the housing having a means for attaching to an inner face ofa separation strip located immediately above a desk drawer; the bulbcover forming as a part of the first compartment and further being madeof a material for allowing light from the bulb to pass through; the bulbbeing automatically energized as the desk drawer is opened and so thatthe bulb being automatically de-energized after a pre-determined amountof time as controlled by a one-shot timer; and the photo-conductor beinglocated on the housing and being configured for receiving room light asthe desk drawer is being opened, said photo-conductor being furtherconfigured electronically with the bulb, the at least one battery andthe transistor so that the bulb being automatically energized andde-energized by the batteries without user intervention.
 3. The lightfixture as claimed in claim 2 wherein said housing further includes agenerally cylindrical housing made of plastics.
 4. The light fixture asclaimed in claim 2 wherein said attaching means further includes the useof Velcro fabric for ease of removal and transport.
 5. The light fixtureas claimed in claim 2 wherein said first compartment is configured tohave an end surface and a side surface, and wherein the bulb coverfurther including a configuration forming as a portion of the sidesurface and at least half of the end surface of the first compartmentfor allowing light to pass through.
 6. The light fixture as claimed inclaim 2 wherein said photo-conductor is a cadmium sulfide photocell. 7.The light fixture as claimed in claim 2 wherein the second compartmentis configured to have an end surface, and wherein said photo-conductoris located on the end surface of the second compartment for receivingroom light.
 8. The light fixture as claimed in claim 2 wherein thesecond compartment is configured to have an end surface and further thesecond compartment having a recess at its end surface, and wherein saidphoto-conductor being located on one of the surfaces forming the recess.9. The light fixture as claimed in claim 2 wherein the photo-conductorin response to a lack of light generating a high resistance valuetherefore causing the transistor to be OFF and also causing no currentto pass through the bulb, the photo-conductor further in response to theroom light generating a low resistance value therefore causing thetransistor to be ON and also causing current to pass through the bulb.10. The light fixture as claimed in claim 2 wherein the pre-determinedamount of time is approximately 60 seconds.
 11. The light fixture asclaimed in claim 2 wherein the transistor is a low-power FET.
 12. Alight fixture for illuminating a back portion of a drawer without takingup drawer storage space, the drawer light fixture comprising: acylindrical housing containing a first and a second compartments whereinthe first compartment having a side surface and an end surface andfurther containing a bulb and a bulb cover, said bulb cover including asemi-cylindrical configuration covering a portion of the side surfaceand the end surface of the first compartment and further forming as apart of the first compartment and further being made of a material forallowing light from the bulb to pass through, and wherein the secondcompartment having an end surface and including at least one battery, aphoto-conductor and a transistor, said second compartment further havinga recess at its end surface, said recess having a downward-facingsurface; the cylindrical housing using VELCRO fabric for attaching to aninner face of a separation strip located immediately above a deskdrawer; the photo-conductor being a cadmium sulfide photocell and beinglocated on downward-facing surface of the recess, the photo-conductorbeing configured for receiving room light as the desk drawer is beingopened, said photo-conductor being further configured electronicallywith the bulb, the at least one battery and the transistor so that thebulb being automatically energized as the desk drawer is opened andautomatically de-energized as the desk drawer is closed.